Busisiwe Mahlangu

Busisiwe Mahlangu (born 1996) is a poet, performer and a dreamer from Mamelodi, Pretoria. She explains her work as a space of healing and growth for herself. Her poetry is mostly described as hard-hitting and raw, she uses her work to hold space for conversations around poverty, mental health, education, healing, domestic violence and being and staying alive.

She is the author of Surviving Loss, a poetry collection which was later adapted for theatre at the South African State Theatre Incubator Program. Surviving Loss was named a bestseller by African Books Collective and Bridge Books in 2019.

Busisiwe is the founder of Lwazilubanzi Project, a community project that aims to use literature as a tool of learning, resistance and healing; working with public schools around Pretoria. Busisiwe is dedicated to inspiring and making a change in the communities around her. In 2020 she completed a YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative Network) Civic Leadership certificate to grow her skills as a leader. She believes that is poetry and literature can play an important role in empowering the youth. In her TEDxTalk she highlights how poetry has transformed her own life.

Mahlangu was awarded the inaugural SA National Poetry Prize (2020) for her poem, “I wear mother’s bones”. She has won the Tshwane Speak Out Loud youth Poetry Competition (2016/2017) and the NLSA Poetry Slam (2017). Her work is published in the following anthologies: Best New African Poets (2018), Kalahari Review (2018), Atlanta Review (2019) History and Imagining Yesterdays (2020) and Wild Imperfections (2021).

Mahlangu was inspired by the jewelry she made for herself for stage and interview appearances to start her business, Busi Creates, where she makes and sells handmade accessories. She has toured and shared her work internationally including USA, Sweden, Lesotho, Mozambique and Nigeria. Busisiwe is currently completing her Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing at UNISA.